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"A FRUIT PARADISE" 



ISSUED FOR 



MADISON AND MORGAN COUNTIES, 
GEORGIA, 



BY THE 



COTTON STATES PUBLISHIN^G AND 
ADVERTISING COMPANY, 

ATLANTA, GEOR(iIA. 

1895. 



Atlanta, Ga.: 
The Foote & Da vies Co., Printeks and Bini>eu.s. 
189 



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n.A '- 



MADISON, AND MORGAN COUNTY, GEORGIA. 

Madison, the center and county seat of Morgan County, was laid out and 
incorporated in tlie year 1813. Its exact location was determined by the 
existence of a beautiful spring-, near which the first courthouse was erected, 
and which still wells up in the very heart of the city. 

Owing to the great and varied resources of the county immediately sur- 
rounding Madison, the town has enjoyed a continued season of prosperity 
from the beginning of her history, at no time previous to the late civil 
war having suffered any serious cahunity. For many years before the 
breaking out of the war between the States, Madison was known as one of 
the wealthiest towns of its size in the South, and was a center of culture 
and refinement. 

Two large and widely known female seminaries were located here, and 
many wealthy planters from the surrounding country removed to Madison 
to secure her exceptional social and educational advantages. White's 
"Statistics of Georgia," published in 1849, states that at that time the town 
contained about 1,200 people, and was regarded as an exceptionally wealthy 
and progressive town. It then had a cotton factory running 2,010 spindles, 
and with a capital of $70,000, and a number of commodious stores doing an 
annual business of $230,000. 

Even the changed conditions imposed upon Madison and her tributary 
country by the war, did not long retard her progress. Her picturesque and 
healthful situation, her mild yet invigorating climate, her proximity to 
the great commercial centers of the South, and the exceptionally high char- 
acter and social qualities of her people, have all contributed to give her a 
continued and substantial growth. In 1H70 her population numbered less 
than 1,400; in 1880 it had increased to 1,900; in 18il0 to 2,500; and at present 
a busy and prosi)erous jiopulation of 3,200 are constantly adding to her 
wealth and importance. 

Madison is situated on a high ridge which traverses Morgan County from 
the northeast to the southwest at an elevation of 760 feet. It is situated 
at the intersection of the main line of the Georgia Kailroad, the oldest road 
in the State, and the Macon & Northern Railroad which has been com- 
pleted within the last two years. It is (58 miles from Atlanta, the metropo- 
lis of the South; 103 from Augusta, the largest cotton manufacturing city 
in the South; 70 from Macon, and 32 from Athens, the seat of the State 
University. Ten mail and express trains pass through the town daily, and 
a sufficient number of freight trains to give an unexcelled service to ship- 
pers of fruits and perishable products. The volume of Madison's shipments 
may be inferred from the fact that she handles from 25,000 to 30,000 bales 
of cotton annually, and proportionate quantities of guano, agricultural 
implements and all the ]>roducts of the factory and the farm. 



''% jBy traxist'er 



A mere enumeration of Madison's industries and institutions will per- 
haps give the best idea of the extent and variety of her interests. Madison 
has at the present time in successful operation an oil mill with a capital of 
$35,000; a soap factory, a fertilizer factory, four steam ginneries, a mam- 
moth compress with a capital of $:}0,*200; two carriage factories, a furniture 
factory with a cajjital of $](),0(»0;a grist and flouringmill, a bottliiigworks, 
a distillery with a capacity of 120 gallons a day; an ice factory with a capi- 
tal of $10,500; a canning factory with a capital of $10,000; a bank with a 
a capital of $75,000, surplus $12,000, and a number of small industries oper- 
ated by individual enterprise. 

All of the industries named have paid the investors, not a single failure 
or suspension having occurred even during the stringency of the past few 
years. Other industries would pay equally well, and capital invested in 
Madison in a butter and cheese factory, a fruit crate factory, a machine 
and repair shoj), a cotton factory, a variety works, or any factory suited to 
the natural products of the surrounding country, could not but yield iiand- 
some returns. 

Madison's business houses are in keeping with her manufacturing inter- 
ests, and her importance as a commercial center is equal to that of any 
town of its size anywhere. Not only is it the business center and dis- 
tributing point for the smaller towns in the county — Rutledge, with a 
population of (500; Godfrey with 200; Buckhead, Florence, High Shoals, 
Fairplay,Keh<)botli and others — but for many of the towns in adjoining 
counties on the line of the Georgia, and the Macon A Northern Roads. 
There are in the town fifty business houses, three-fourths of which arecom- 
modious brick structures, doing an annual business of $1,000,000. 

Madison's public buildings and improvements would be creditable to 
a town of three times its population. 'J'he courthouse, placed in the 
center of a beautiful open square, has recently been improved by the erec- 
tion of a tower clock at a cost of $1,000; the county jail, erected in 1892, is 
of the most approved construction, costing $8,000; there are two excellent 
hotels, one erected in 1891 at a cost of $;5;}.000;an electric light plant owned 
by the city costing $24,000, furnishes lights for the streets and public and 
private buildings;au(lateieplione exchange connectsthe city with Atlanta, 
Macon, Atliens and intermediate smaller towns. 

The entire property valuation of Madison is over $2,000,000, with a city 
tax of 50 cents per hundred dollars. The state and county tax is 97'.> cents 
per hundred, and the county has no bonded indebtedness. The city has 
recently issued $25,000.00 in bonds to build school houses, being the only 
bonds outstanding against the city. 

The foregoing partial enumeration of Madison's commercial interests 
and linancial condition is in itself a (commentary on her social and educa- 
tional attainments. Material prosperity is usually accompanied with 
superior educatioiux! and religious advantages. Every material gain 
brings its spiritual biessing,and INIadison is no exception tothe rule. Her 



public schools, which have a nine months term and include a complete 
high school, are unexcelled in the State. At the present time two new 
brick school buildings are being erected, the two to cost not less than $25,- 
000. One of these buildings, in addition to having a complete equipment 
of school furniture and apparatus, will contain a perfect auditorium for 
theatrical, musical and literary entertainments. In this most important 
matter of education, Madison invites comparison with any city North or 
South. Those who contemplate moving to this sect on from the North or 
West will find here educational facilities equal in all respects to those of 
their own section. 

In addition to Madison's ample school fund the county has a fund of 
-$50,000, called the Braswell Fund, for the education of white orphan 
children. 

This fund was given to the county by Benjamin Braswell in the year 
1817. The county has not only shown her appreciation of this munificent 
gift by a proper use of it, but has erected a handsome monument to the 
giver. This monument stands in the public square in Madison. 

The schools are supplemented by an attractive public library, open every 
afternoon and evening, and by two excellent weekly newspapers the Mad- 
isonian, established in 1870, and the Advertiser, established in 1886. The 
churches of Madison are large and comfortable brick structures. There 
are Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian and Episcopal churches for the white 
people, and Methodist, Baptist and Presbyterian for the negroes. 

The town is quiet and orderly, and in this respect will compare favorably 
with any town of its size, either North or South. Its several saloons pay a 
yearly license of $400.00 each, and are kept under strict surveillance. 
Serious crimes are of exceedingly rare occurrence in Madison, and petty 
misdemeanors are reduced to a minimum. 

Though Madison has the appearance of a bustling little city, she has not 
neglected adornment. Her streets are straight, clean and well kept, 
shaded by beautiful water oaks and elms, both of which gain their largest 
stature and most symmetrical proportions here. The water oak is an ideal 
shade and ornamental tree, having the shape of a perfect cone and with a 
glossy leaf of dark green. It attains great size and age. In nearly every pri- 
vate yard may also be found the shapely and beautiful magnolia tree, with 
its mammoth white flower contrasting with its dark green foliage. Flowers 
of the finest varieties, which are so carefully nourished in hothouses in the 
North, grow out of doors here in the greatest profusion. Blue grass, though 
not indigenous to the soil, grows sufliciently to produce beautiful lawns. 

Many of the private residences are expensive, and all neat and tasty. In 
and around the town are a number of the old-time mansions, with their 
stately proportions and magnificent sheltering old oaks. If, as George 
Eliot has somewhere said, "The house one builds for himself is an out- 
ward expression of his own ciiaracter," the builders of these old Southern 
mansions must have had the largest and most hospitable natures. 





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The society of Madison is of a high order. There are among the young 
people, several literary and musical clubs, which are well sustained. All 
of her people are fond of practicing those little social amenities which 
make life worth living; and to strangers, as well as to each other, they are 
ever ready to extend any courtesy or needed assistance. 

Visitors from the North and West to the Cotton States and International 
Exposition, should arrange to include in their journey a trip through 
Middle Geoi'gia. This section of the State is easily accessible from At- 
lanta, and will afford a delightful resting place after a visit to the crowded 
city. Georgia is distinguished among all of the Southern States for the 
number and beauty of her small towns, as well as for the salubrity of her 
climate and the productiveness of her soil, and of these towns, those of this 
section of the State are pre-eminently the most attractive. Those who 
come and make a personal investigation, will find that no portion of the 
Union to-day is making a more rapid or substantial progress than Middle 
Georgia. In no section area greater number of industries being started 
or lands more rapidly appreciating. 

To you who read this pamphlet, a cordial invitation is extended to visit 
Madison and Morgan County. Whether you stay but for a day or for 
years, whether you come simply as a visitor, or with the view to establish 
your home in a more genial clime than that to which you are accustomed 
you will be welcome. 

Morgan County, of which Madison is the capital, was taken from Baldwin 
County, and was laid out as a separate county in the year 1812, having been 
named in honor of General Daniel Morgan, of Revolutionary fame. The 
county was originally settled principally by immigrants from Greene and 
counties to the east and southeast, with a considerable sprinkling of Vir- 
ginians and Carolinians. At a somewhat later date, quite a number of im- 
migrants from Connecticut moved into the county, assisting very materi- 
ally in its rapid development. 

The topography of Morgan County is very similar to that of Western 
N"ew York or Southwestern Ohio, being gently rolling, and supporting a 
magnificent native growth of hard wood forest. Geologically, it lies in 
what is called the primary formation, being underlaid at different depths 
with a granite formation. 

The climate of Morgan County is as nearly ideal as that of any portion 
of this country, and is like that of some of the fairest portions of the globe. 
An isothermal line drawn through this portion of Georgia, and extended 
around the earth, would pass through those countries which have in all 
ages been celebrated for the production of the most luscious fruits. South- 
ern France, a part of Spain, Sicily and other countries enjoying a similar 
climate and vegetation, would be touched by this line. The elevation of 
Morgan county, averaging about 700 feet, mitigates the heat which would 
be felt in a lower country having the same latitude. The air here is tonic 
and bracing, the summers being much cooler and more pleasant than in 



the Xorthwestern States, the thermometer rarely registering 95 degrees. 
The nights are uniformly cool. The winters are delightful, the tempera- 
ture but seldom falling as low as 20 degrees. There is enough cold to 
kill the germs of disease, and to give the system a needed tonic, but not 
enough to make out-of-door work unpleasant for more than a few weeks 
in the year. 

Mr. Buckle, in his marvelous work, "The History of Civilization," says : 
"Of all the physical agencies which have originated the most impor- 
tant consequences in regard to the general organization of society, climate 
ranks first." Climate, more than any other one agency, gives or destroys 
health, and lies at the foundation of all human progress and development. 
In this section, no superfluous energy need be expended in combating the 
destructive tendencies of excessive heat or severe cold, of disastrous storms 
or drouths, or more than all, of the diseases incident to less favored climes. 
The lung and throat troubles of the far North, the fever and malaria of the 
extreme South, and the catarrhal and rheumatic affections of the moun- 
tains, are not found here. While the climate is sufficiently mild to make 
out-of-door life pleasant through most of the year, it is not enervating, 
and the people not only enjoy an immunity from disease, but enjoy vigor- 
ous health. 

The perfect drainage of the country and the abundance of pure free- 
stone water in Morgan County are also Important factors in maintaining 
its unexcelled healthfulness. Miasmatic or febrile influences cannot 
thrive in this section, and epidemics do not occur. The governmental 
health officers have always regarded two per cent as a very low death rate; 
and yet the United States census enumerator for this district states in his 
mortality report that after a careful canvass he found the death rate to be 
but IJs per cent. There can be no. higher evidence of the healthfulness of 
this section. The soil of Morgan County is generally of a chocolate or red 
loam, with a grey or sandy loam in some portions. The soil is everywhere 
underlaid with a clay subsoil, sufficiently firm and compact to hold th 
fertilization and moisture of the upper soil. The red soil is the strongest, 
though tlie grey lands are more easily worked and are not so easily affected 
by dry seasons. The grey lands also assimilate fertilization readily 
and may by proper cultivation be brought up to a high standard of fer- 
tility. The bottom lands throughout the county are exceedingly rich, 
and will with the same effort produce as bounteous crops as the best lands 
in Ohio, with the additional advantage of producing several crops in the 
same season. 

Morgan County is exceptionally well watered, as may be inferred from 
the following historical fact. When the county was first laid out it was 
divided into lots of '201}i acres each, each lot containing one square chain. 
These lots were drawn for under the old lottery act at Milledgeville, at 
that time the capital of the State. It was found that in the entire county, 
which comprises about 272 square miles, but one lot of 202^^ square acres 



9 

was without running water. This was long known as the "dry lot" and 
by special agreement the holder of it was granted the water privileges of 
his neighbors. This statement is the more remarkable when it is re- 
membered that the mean velocity of the streams in the county is four 
miles an hour. There are no swamps nor standing ponds. The streams 
are largely spring fed and are clear and beautiful. 

Many of these streams furnish power sufficient to operate small mills, 
of which there are quite a number in the county. Indian, Sugar, Sandy, 
Hard Labor and other creeks might be further utilized in supplying 
power for saw mills, and flouring and grist mills. On the Appalachee 
river, which forms the eastern boundary of Morgan County, dividing it 
from Oconee and Greene Counties, are a number of shoals which would 
furnish excellent power and which might be utilized at a comparatively 
small expense. At "High Shoals" on the Appalachee, at the extreme 
northern part of the county and sixteen miles from Madison, the excellent 
power is already partially utilized. At that point a cotton factory is 
being successfully operated— so profitably indeed, that its stock has never 
been for sale, and it is constantly enlarging its capacity. 

ISTo county in the State had a finer natural growth of timber than Mor- 
gan County. Oak of all kinds, hickory, chestnut, walnut, ash, elm and 
yellow pine clothe the hills and border the watercourses. Although much 
of the larger timber has been cleared away much yet remains that might 
be profitably used. There is still an abundance of hard woods, suitable 
for the manufacture of furniture, wagon stock and agricultural imple- 
ments, which would find a ready sale in the immediate section. 

Of the minerals in Morgan County gold has been discovered near Kut- 
ledge in the extreme western part of the county, though it has never been 
worked and probably does not exist in paying quantities. A vein of high 
grade magnetic iron ore has also been found in the southern part, near 
Putnam County, though it has not as yet been worked. Beds of kaolin 
and soapstone, are found in the southern part. Granite has already been 
extensively quarried in Morgan County. It exists in inexhaustible 
quantities and is of the finest quality. 

But agriculture is now, and must ever be, the greatest source of Morgan 
County's wealth. In this county, as throughout the State, "King Cotton" 
too long held sway to the exclusion of other products which would have 
proven more remunerative, and kept his own subjects in ignorance of the 
unused agricultural resources with which they have always been sur- 
rounded. 

Now that diversified farming is being introduced in this section and 
the old-time plantation, which was so carelessly cultivated, is being 
divided up into small farms which are cultivated on the intensive plan, it 
is found that many crops are much more profitable than cotton ever was. 
Fruits, melons and berries of all kinds, wheat, corn, oats and all of the 
cereals grown in the temperate zone, the most nutritious grasses, all of 



10 

the domestic animals, poultry, bees — in fact almost every variety of farm 
and garden products may be successfully cultivated here. 

If any section could be appropriately called "A Fruit Paradise," where 
all the fruits which live in the temperate zone are grown, and where they 
attain their highest state and produce the most abundantly, Morgan 
County may well claim that title. P'or while many parts of Georgia justly 
call themselves the home of the peach, grape, pear and small fruits, as 
strawberries, raspberries, etc., adaptation of soil to the general farm pro- 
ducts, healthfulness of climate, pure water, railroad facilities, proximity 
or access to market, schools, the enterprise of present inhabitants — all tell 
in favor of certain localities. 

It is to be borne in mind that not only is Georgia destined to furnish a 
large crop of fruits of all kinds for Northern communities, large and 
small, from May to August, but those communities which are within easy 
reach of railways leading direct to these cities are to do this work. These 
circumstances insure good prices. A yearly crop of peaches would pay 
well at 25 cents per bushel. They uniformly quote, in Northern cities, at 
$3 to $3.50 per crate of three pecks, during the above period of ten weeks, 
the very time in which our best varieties of fruit are ripening. 

Although Morgan County is not as yet engaged so extensively in fruit 
culture as of some counties further South, enough has been done to show 
that those counties possess not a single element of success which is not 
fully shared by this section. When these communities and others in the 
State were freely represented in the Atlanta market the following ai)peared 
in the Atlanta Journal relative to the character of the Georgia peach : 

"Some of the most beautiful peaches ever seen in Atlanta were received 
at the Journal offlce from Col. DeWolf, of Morgan County. They came 
from his famous Sugar Creek farm, on which there is an abundance and 
variety of fruit. Col. DeWolf is a Northern man, who came to Georgia 
several years ago and settled near Madison. He has been a very successful 
farmer, and now has one of the best and most productive farms in the 
State." 

Several gentlemen having baskets of peaches from this orchard look 
pains to investigate for their own satisfaction, and with reference to the 
question of future investment, and reported that ''no such half bushel 
basket of peaches could be picked out from those on sale in the whole city 
put together." Abundant evidence of the same kind can be secured both 
ill Atlanta and Madison by persons fully acquainted with the conditions 
necessary to judge. A fruit merchant from New York, after inspection, 
ollered Col. DeWolf, formerly State School Commissioner of Ohio, $2,500 
for the fruit on his eight-acre orchard, on condition that he could find 
enough in the neighborhood to fill a refrigerator car as the varieties 
ripened. Other orchards near the city have, with tlicir superior fruit, 
borne similar testimony. 



11 

other fruits and berries are grown to the same perfection. The strength 
of Morgan County's soil gives a peculiar richness to the fruit, as well as a 
larger size and higher color. Grapes do well, and the melons grown here 
cannot be excelled. Vegetables of all varieties are easily raised and 
mature for the early markets. 

Dairying is becoming one of Morgan County's most important interests, 
and is destined to be, perhaps, its chief source of wealth and importance. 
This fact will render this section particularly attractive to Northern and 
Western farmers, who, with the disadvantages of their severe climate and 
long winters have become skilled in this occupation. In Morgan County, 
owing to its innumerable springs and running streams, its wealth of pas- 
turage, and the long seasons during which cattle may graze on nutritious 
grasses, these Northern dairymen would find their occupation much easier 
and much more profitable than at home, while the best markets are easily 
accessible. 

(3ow peas (which are used for ensilage when green), vetch, clover, lu- 
cerne, and the famous Bermuda grass, all grow luxuriantly in Morgan 
County. Of these, the Bermuda takes the lead, it having been pronounced, 
by an Ohio chemist, to be the most nutritious grass grown. One acre of 
Bermuda grass will keep a cow in perfect condition during the entire year, 
affording pasturage in summer and hay in winter. As a renovator of the 
soil, as well as a stock food of the very highest value, Bermuda grass may 
almost be called the agricultural hope of the South. 

As a crop, this grass is very profitable, yielding, with careful cultivation, 
two crops on the same land in one year, averaging two tons to the acre, 
each crop, and selling readily at from $10 to $lo per ton. 

In this brief article, it has been impossible to even barely enumerate all 
of the products of the farm and field which may be successfully grown in 
Morgan County. It may be safely said, that here the farmer may produce 
in his own fields everything needed tocomfortably sustain life, except those 
few exotic luxuries to which we have become accustomed. He can have all 
the domestic fowls and all of the domestic animals which furnish food and 
raiment; he can supply his table at a minimum of labor, with the vegeta- 
bles, which form so large a part of his daily food; with bread made from 
his own wheat or corn, and sugar made from his own sorghum or cane; he 
can produce abundantly that vegetable wool, cotton, which clothes the 
world; and he can enjoy the most luscious melons, fruits and berries that 
were ever ripened by the sun, and that oftentimes when the far Northern 
hills are mantled with snow. 

It is this wonderful variety which constitutes the wealth of Morgan 
County. This section is not, as many Northern people suppose, a semi- 
tropical country, but a country very similar to their own in point of nat- 
ural products, yet having the advantages of a more equable climate and 
longer seasons. Whatever the Northern farmer, fruit grower or gardener 
has done at home, he can do here, with less labor and a more certain re- 



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ward. Here, his crops are not out short by excessive rains or long con 
tinned drouths, nor the products of his summer's labor consumed by him- 
self during the enforced idleness of a long and dreary winter. Nowhere 
can a comfortable living be obtained more easily than here. 

There is already quite a sprinkling of Northern and Western people in 
Morgan County, and they are invariably more than pleased with their 
adopted country. 

Lands in Morgan County may still be purchased at from $7 to $20 per 
acre. These lands are accessible to the railroads and towns of the county, 
and must constantly appreciate in value. 

For further information regarding conditions in Madison, or Morgan 
County, address Mr. AV. R. Mustin, Mayor, or Mr. J. H. Hunter, Chairman 
County Commissioners, Madison, Georgia. 




Entered acconling: to Act of Conjjress, by 
COTTON STATES rUULISHlXG AND ADVEUTISING CO. 
1895. 



I R n T c 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



